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BERKELEY — Police response to a $40 armed robbery on July 27 — which included camouflage-clad officers and an armored vehicle on closed streets — has sparked a war of words between the police union and Councilman Jesse Arreguin.

At the same time the response has rekindled a debate on what is seen as the militarization of the department.

Arreguin cited constituent concerns in a July 29 letter to the city manager that asked for details of the incident and questioned whether the police response “was proportional to the crime.”

In an Aug. 5 response to Arreguin, Berkeley Police Association President Chris Stines shot back, “To characterize a safe operation to apprehend an extremely dangerous felon and minimize an assault on an older female resident as ‘disproportional’ is mindboggling. There was no ‘military occupation.'”

The robbery that brought out the department’s 15-member Special Response Team took place at the Wash & Shop Laundromat at 2450 Sacramento St.

“The guy came in about 8:25 (a.m.) and at first put the gun on the counter,” laundry owner Siu Ying told this newspaper. “When he saw I wasn’t scared, he opened the gun to show the five bullets.”

When Ying pounded on a window for help, the thief grabbed her arm and pushed her to the ground causing bruising, but not requiring medical attention. The robber took $40 and fled.

Nine of the 10 patrol officers on duty responded. At about 9:10 a.m. they called for the SRT, which was training in Richmond, and soon after requested Alameda’s armored vehicle and Oakland’s canine unit, police said.

The SRT provides “a ready response to high threat and risk incidents outside the normal scope of … patrol responsibilities” including barricaded subjects and hostage situations and service of high risk search and arrest warrants, according to the city website, which also notes that SRT members placed first in the 2013 Urban Shield competition in Oakland.

In a phone interview Wednesday with Police Chief Michael Meehan and SRT leader Sgt. Spencer Fomby, Meehan explained that the elevated response in this case was that police believed the suspect was in a confined residential neighborhood and had climbed onto a roof, “which makes it particularly dangerous for first responders and also just people living in the area.”

Fomby said that camouflage uniforms were studied, then adopted about eight years ago. They are specially made for SRT with material that withstands officers crawling on the ground or climbing on buildings, he said.

Camouflage “helps the officers blend into the background,” Fomby said, noting it is particularly helpful when searching for a suspect from fixed positions such as in bushes or behind trees.

When searching for an armed suspect, operating with drawn weapons is standard procedure, Meehan added.

While the council had balked at the purchase an armored vehicle, Meehan said he believes the council would want them to use such vehicles for officer safety.

Meehan said he understands the concerns by some that the uniforms and vehicle provoke. “It looks very serious,” he said. “But it was a serious incident.”

Witnesses interviewed expressed concern at the response. Mona Carrillo, who works at the Homemade Cafe next to the laundry, said calling in the “military SWAT team” was “overkill.”

“It was very scary — surreal, like in a movie,” she said. “There must have been worse things happening in Berkeley that needed the police.”

Adel Michel, owner of the nearby Alex Market, also considers the police response was an overreaction. He said he thought the robber was long gone by the time the SRT unit arrived and added that the police action didn’t make his store — or the two Indian restaurants in the small commercial area that suffered recent break-ins, one as recent as Monday night — any safer.

In his response to Arreguin, Stines reminded the council that a Hayward officer was recently killed on duty and concluded, “The logical extension of Councilmember Arreguin’s approach would be for officers to refrain from our doing our job, which is respond to in-progress crimes, and protect the public, possibly at the expense of our own lives.”

Arreguin wrote in response that, “I tried not to come to assumptions or cast aspersions regarding the incident, but rather raise important questions posed by my constituents.”

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